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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtisimo, post: 2943570, member: 83845&quot;]<p style="text-align: center"><font size="5"><span style="color: #808080"><b>Bonus coin #1</b></span></font></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><font size="6"><b>Curtisimo&#039;s Largest Coin of 2017</b></font></p><p>[ATTACH=full]717223[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Roman Empire</font></p><p><font size="3">Trajan (AD 98-117)</font></p><p><font size="3">AE Sestertius, Rome mint, struck ca. AD 115-116</font></p><p><font size="3">Dia.: 32 mm</font></p><p><font size="3">Wt.: 20.94 g</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv.: IMP CAES TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P Trajan draped and cuirassed bust right</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev.: SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS at bottom FORT RED / S C Fortunate seated holding holding rudder and cornucopia </font></p><p><font size="3">Ref.: RIC II 652</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5"><b>My Comments:</b></font></p><p>I was surprised that this ended up being my largest coin of 2017 since it is not a great deal larger than several of my other coins, such as my Lysimachus and Athenian tetradrachms. I intended to score a sweet Ptolemaic bronze this year but never pulled the trigger on one so that left Trajan here as the de-facto champion in this category.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is still a great coin IMO despite the imperfections such as the flan crack and the reverse corrosion. Trajan&#039;s portrait in particular is pleasing to the eye and shows him as an older but still strong emperor.&nbsp; Trajan certainly wins the award for most honorifics included on a coin. This coin is literally crammed full of all the ways the senate and the people thought Trajan was awesome. OPTIMO is the most telling of these.&nbsp; The senate awarded Trajan the title of OPTIMO PRINCEPS which translates roughly to &quot;Best First Citizen&quot; after he avenged the Roman&#039;s humiliation at the hands of the Dacians under Domitian by conquering them and using the wealth from that campaign to beautify Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse of this coin shows Fortuna Redux which was an already established convention in the early empire of wishing an emperor a safe return to the city of Rome.&nbsp; Trajan was on a campaign conquering Parthia at the time (much to the delight of the Roman people).&nbsp; He became ill on his way home and never made it back to Rome despite this coins appeal to the ever fickle Roman goddess of luck.</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="6"><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>Please post your Trajan&#039;s and your largest coins from 2017</b></span></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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